pumpkin paintings

We always let the kids paint pumpkins as well as carve them, we havn't carved yet this year, but we let them paint last night. Sadly, the only good colors I had were black, white, and blue. So Kai's ended up almost a dark grey cause he just mixed and colored the entire pumpkin. I was worried I only had a few colors on hand, but it never ceases to amaze me that most of the time, kids just don't care! They were just happy to be painting and didn't really care what color it was :) Here's a couple of pics

New Slide Show!!!

Life is Good :)

Well Rich had a long weekend and you know we will up and take a vacation if given the time! One of our favorite places ever was calling our names :) We headed to Zions. The weekend was full of beautiful family togetherness! It was peaceful, and slow, and relaxing. I love it when the whole family is taken away from everything and there is nothing else to do but enjoy each other. There were so many times when Rich and I looked at each other, smiled, and realized how blessed we were to have these sweet babies in our lives. Here's a bit of what we spent our time doing... This is Meili before she's about to sink like a rock... She's an animal and she loves to swim 'all by myselffff!' In turn, she requires 1 on 1 hands on attention, good think Kai knows how to swim!We went apple picking again like last year and the kids just love it! Kai had a huge bag full, but still wanted to keep picking. He was an expert ladder climber and Meili just loved reaching to the bottom of the tree and yanking on any free apple. She is so happy when she does things by herself :)
After picking Meili was sleepy, she loves rubs, she says (actually, demands) "rub us" She refers to herself as, "us"... Her many personalities I suppose :)We did 3 hikes, emerald pools trail, riverside walk, and weeping rock. Kai hiked all of them. He was such a big hiker! Emerald pools was about 1 1/2 miles total and he hoofed the whole thing. He complained only slightly, but as long as we kept talking about wildlife and how he was being a wilderness explorer, he was just fine. He held 2 frogs on that hike and we saw so many deer that we were withing feet from it was ridiculous! We got to the end of the river walk and the kids played for about a half an hour in the water and mud, then it started downpouring! We tried to wait it out, but after 30 min of waiting I put Meili in the backpack and ran a mile out with her in the pooring rain, while Rich ran Kai out on his shoulders. It was pretty crazy, we were soaked, and had our own little MAN vs WILD moment :) It was invigorating, I was huffing and puffing and Meili kept asking me, 'you ok mom?' Meili... so happy to be playing in the mud...Sliding down the big rock :)Hunkering down waiting for the rain to subside, the trees didn't cut it, we had to relocate to under a big rock overhang, before the mad dash out!Pretty sure my kids have one of the coolest Dads EVER! How many men do you know that can catch minows with their bare hands? 4 of them to be exact :) Oh, and not to mention, lizards as well. What the boy wants, the boy gets. Kai seriously spent his time in the water 'fishing' for minows. Meili, spent some more time in the mud...Our last night there, we got to stay in our favorite place, Desert Pearl, This was our riverside view. It was complete with plenty of lizards to catch as well :)Sorry! I just realized what a huge post this was! It was so much fun we didn't want to come back to reality. Oh, and no living creatures were hurt during this vacation :)

The finished product :)

Well, I thought I was adventurous last year with the big bad wolf and little red, but this year I think we have reached a whole new level :) Ever since Kailer watched the movie 'How to train your dragon', he has been obsessed with dragons and in particular the blue and yellow dragon, aptly named 'the deadly nadder' (don't ask me what that means...) So, when asked what he wanted to be for Halloween of course it had to be the blue and yellow dragon from the movie. Good luck finding that on the internet, no such thing! So, thanks to an awesome friend with and awesome body suit pattern, we managed just fine. In fact, it only took me about 5 evenings total. Since he had the stuffed animal, he was very particular about every detail. For instance, 'Mom, see this brown belly here, (pointing to his finished brown belly) it needs to go all the way up to my neck' Me: 'Sorry sweetheart, Mommy's ran out of brown (aka: that would just look funny and I don't have the energy...)' So, here's the finished product, needless to say he is so thrilled and tells me every day that it is the coolest thing he has ever seen, so much cooler than any other dragon costume. He puts it on most every morning until we leave the house and is literally giggling to himself while he wriggles into it. And that my friends is what Halloween is all about! Love it, and can't wait to make Meili into the dragon's princess. She will hate wearing it, but I shall bribe her with candy :) Here are the pics enjoy :)

Lake Mojave

We went twice this week to Lake Mojave. It's about an hour away, but so worth the drive! The water is literally crystal clear and it is so beautiful! It has beautiful sandy beaches and is nothing like dumpy lake mead. It was so much fun. We went with some friends over the weekend and had a great time. Meili loves loves loves the dirt and could play in it for hours! She also really loves to swim with her floaties on, which is nice that she can do that now. Kai loved building and destroying castles, but more than that, he chased the minows around with a bucket almost the entire time. There is fisherman blood that runs through him and he cannot help himself! He walked around with a stick with a piece of bread on the end of it for bait and literally tried for 3 hours to catch a fish! To no avail I might add, in case you were wondering, which was pretty hard for him to handle! It was so much fun we can't believe it took us this long to discover this place!

Just though this one was a cute picture and a sneak preview of Kai's how to train a dragon costume for halloween, which is not finished, but he is still wearing it everywhere!

Happy Birthday Meili

Our little lady has turned 2. She is a diva through and through. She's a naughty little thing, but we love her to pieces. She wanted an elmo cake so that is what she got :) We had family over for cake and opened a few presents with her. Her Grandpa Holt took her shopping and he held up a dress to her and said 'how do you like this?' she said, 'yes, buy this'. Oh man, she is such a little stinker. She carried her bag out all the way to the car. Her favorite gift was probably the baby from Nate and Sarah, she actually squealed and said 'ooo baby!' I have it on video and will definitely be rewatching it! She is starting to play rather nicely with Kailer, depending on her varient mood swings. It is so nice to see them becoming little buddies. She still is a face pincher, but we are all trying to bring out the gentle side of Meili :) She loves tigers and dogs and is always one or the other. She loves to be dirty and messy, but still likes to have 3 bracelets on at a time :) We love our little Mei! Here are some pics from the weekend.

Ahhh :)

Home sweet home! Finally we are together again and loving being back at home. It was a long month for all of us, but we are grateful to have had the experiences we did. Lets hope this month goes slowly! I updated the slideshow pics from our trip :) enjoy